From lab celebration to marketplace: the valley of death

The work presents overview of the impact of CTTO has had since its inception five years ago, and suggest where opportunities might exist for industry, laboratories, and the academic community to insert their technology/products into naval systems. The goal of the CTTO program is to explore ways to facilitate the introduction of both commercial and "other" technology into the hands of sailors and marines. The office acts as a brokering agent to move new, innovative and potentially disruptive technology into acquisition programs, resulting in increased war fighting capability, significant cost avoidance, reduced manning needs, and service life extensions. This usually means effective planning for how to get the technology from the developer to the government marketplace (acquisition community); i.e., crossing the valley of death.